4 ms·

How many people live well below their means and retire early though? I imagine most people taking those jobs just ended up living expensive lifestyles and retir

How many people live well below their means and retire early though? I imagine most people taking those jobs just ended up living expensive lifestyles and retiring around the same time the rest of us do. Plus even retiring early generally means waiting until you're in your 40s or 50s.

KMag 4y ago
I think plenty of people work hard to hit retirement money, and then make mid-life career switches to jobs with better work-life balance. My wife and I were having lots of trouble starting a family and were preparing to basically retire early. The problem is, it's difficult to fit in socially if you're retired early. I was about to start working in earnest on a career pivot to consulting/gig work that I could do for a few months out of the year and travel with my wife the rest of the year. The main aim of the flexible work was to remain employable and able to ramp back up if something went terribly wrong with our retirement investments and/or our living costs. Luckily, our 4th pregnancy worked out (unlike the previous 3). Now, we're working to maximize opportunities for our son, but we were preparing to make serious career changes to trade the majority of our income for much more flexibility. Now, the plan is to keep working until our son is through college, but he's less than 2 years old, so there's plenty of time for plans to change. Had we lost our son, the plan was to live out a 3-4 star lifestyle, traveling the world and working just enough to keep the option open for ramping work back up in an emergency. So, it's a sample size of one, but I think the type of people who live well enough below their means to retire early also tend to be the the type of people who dial their careers back to idle for a "soft retirement" instead of quitting work cold-turkey.
eldritch_4ier 4y ago
Expensive lifestyles are expensive because there’s more demand for them. Living a more desirable lifestyle and then retiring at the same time is still better is it not?

KMag 4y ago

I think plenty of people work hard to hit retirement money, and then make mid-life career switches to jobs with better work-life balance. My wife and I were having lots of trouble starting a family and were preparing to basically retire early. The problem is, it's difficult to fit in socially if you're retired early. I was about to start working in earnest on a career pivot to consulting/gig work that I could do for a few months out of the year and travel with my wife the rest of the year. The main aim of the flexible work was to remain employable and able to ramp back up if something went terribly wrong with our retirement investments and/or our living costs. Luckily, our 4th pregnancy worked out (unlike the previous 3). Now, we're working to maximize opportunities for our son, but we were preparing to make serious career changes to trade the majority of our income for much more flexibility. Now, the plan is to keep working until our son is through college, but he's less than 2 years old, so there's plenty of time for plans to change. Had we lost our son, the plan was to live out a 3-4 star lifestyle, traveling the world and working just enough to keep the option open for ramping work back up in an emergency. So, it's a sample size of one, but I think the type of people who live well enough below their means to retire early also tend to be the the type of people who dial their careers back to idle for a "soft retirement" instead of quitting work cold-turkey.

eldritch_4ier 4y ago

Expensive lifestyles are expensive because there’s more demand for them. Living a more desirable lifestyle and then retiring at the same time is still better is it not?